


The Disappearance of the Mary Celeste

by bagelistrying



Category: SCP Foundation
Genre: Bermuda Triangle, Dark, Drowning, Eels :), Gen, Horror, Hypnotism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Little Dialogue, Mystery, Ocean, Original Character(s), Time Period: 1872, Winter, descriptions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27458854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bagelistrying/pseuds/bagelistrying
Summary: The Mary Celeste set sail for Genoa on November 7th. On December 5th, it was spotted floating around the Azores Islands, completely untouched, but the entire crew had vanished.





	The Disappearance of the Mary Celeste

**Author's Note:**

> So, I don’t have a fear of the ocean. I live near the ocean, I visit a lot, and I’m not scared of it. When I first heard of SCP 3000, I thought it was cool as hell, I wanted it as a pet. So I wrote a character to represent that ‘oh my god it’s so pretty i want it’ feeling and then wrote what would happen. Enjoy! :)

Apollo slid down the mast of the ship, bouncing on his heel as he landed down on the deck. The Mary Celeste had been traveling for maybe two weeks, he hadn’t bothered to count, but Captain Briggs had confirmed that there were only a few days left until they reached the shore of Genoa. 

The Ligurian Sea was growing closer, and though he liked spending his days on the ship, he couldn’t wait to get off. He had no idea if it would be better or worse than where he was now, but he was ready to see it already. 

He suddenly heard the calling of the Navigator, and he ran over to her, tracing her gaze as she leaned over the edge, pointing to something in the water. 

It was a silhouette, and it was huge. Half the width of the ship itself, and longer than he could even see. He glanced back up at the navigator, his mouth agape. It was the wrong shape to be a whale or a shark, but far too big to be anything else. 

Even the entire Mary Celeste itself seemed small in comparison.

“That’s not a rock formation, is it?” Apollo said.

She shook her head. “Watch it- There!”

Apollo turned back just in time to see the shadow suddenly jump forward, a strange but controlled movement as the shape rippled forward. He leaned back. “I’m gonna go see what it is.” 

The navigator raised an eyebrow at him, but he already had a leg over the side of the ship, and before she could respond, he had dove off the edge and into the water.

The water was absolutely freezing. His loose shirt was making it worse, soaked with the cold and clinging to his skin. His eyes had already begun to sting with the salt, but he forced himself to keep them open. 

The figure below the surface was even bigger than he expected it to be. Up on the ship, he was sure it was a trick of the light - no living, breathing animal could ever exist at that size. As he sank a little further, it started to move again. A colossal shape began to move toward him, like the head of a snake, ducking over its own coils to meet Apollo. 

His mind began to fill in the gaps in its appearance, and he realized what it was. To call it an eel would have been an understatement. Though it had the same features and structure of a moray eel and he didn’t know if moray eels even lived near the shore of Genoa, that wasn’t what it felt like. 

Its dark, lichen speckled body stretched out of sight, disappearing into the navy abyss. In his amazement, Apollo realized that there were no other fish around it. 

He had assumed that there would have been some kind of symbiotic relationship with a monster like this, but there was nothing, no creatures along its papery dorsal fin running all the way along its back and swaying in the gentle current. It was alone in the infinite span of ocean it owned and ruled over. 

Its head was only slightly thicker than the rest of it, milky eyes bulging out the sides.  A giant jaw ran all the way to its neck, shifting up and down and snapping into an unnaturally wide mouth, lined with thousands of tiny white teeth, a bed of nails running along the inside of it. 

It was the most insane thing that Apollo never thought he would see. And it was gorgeous. 

He had never seen something so majestic, its delicate but deliberate swaying in one place, commanding the ocean around it, bending a seemingly unconquerable force of nature to its will.

Dragging his arms through the icy waves, Apollo tried to bring himself lower in the water, stretching open his eyes. Realizing that his arms were grasping at the top surface, he realized that his lungs were scraping at his throat for more air. 

He let himself drift back up to the side of the ship, gasping for air. The navigator leaned over the side over the ship, yelling,

“Apollo! What is it? Did you see it?”

He glanced back down at the enormous figure. “It’s… I can’t describe it. Come see it, it’s beyond anything-” 

He tried to find more words, but couldn’t. He just let his gaze drift back and took another deep breath before sinking back into the water. This time, he wasn’t frozen with amazement, so he carefully got closer, iciness creeping up through him from his toes.

Its cloudy eyes swirled when it moved, like a snowglobe that traced his path around it. He needed to get even closer. The darkness beneath him felt like it was creeping up from its emptiness, about to reach up, wrap itself around his leg and drag him down, down into the strange chaos that the creature had emerged from. 

He had never heard stories of such a creature. Nobody he met had ever seen or heard of something so majestic- that had no idea what they were missing, but he didn’t want them to know. 

He wanted this to be his story, the tale of a titan that had chosen the Mary Celeste- no,  _ him _ , to discover it.

He was only half aware that he was out of air again. Something was stinging in the back on his mind, begging for him to go back up, but he didn’t want to. 

The creature was slowly moving, swaying idly in front of him. For him. He felt his lips part, salt seeping into his mouth and filling his throat. His mind suddenly told him that he couldn’t breathe, but the response never came. The desperation, the panic- it never happened. 

There were only the ocean and the majestic creature that lunged forward to snap up his body. 

**Author's Note:**

> there you go! If anyone cares, the Mary Celeste was a real ship and everything in the summary is true. It's fascinating and I wanted to use this SCP to fill in the blanks. Thanks for reading!


End file.
